Auditor-general pegs Games cost at $2 billion

Miro Cernetig, Vancouver Sun Published: Thursday, September 14, 2006 Canada.com Van sun
VICTORIA -- The 2010 Olympic Games will cost taxpayers about $2 billion, not the approximately $600 million long-stated by the British Columbia government, according to a B.C. auditor-general's report that will be released this morning.
The Vancouver Sun has learned Auditor-General Arn van Iersel believes the Olympics' real cost to taxpayers is triple the provincial government's commonly stated figure.Following accepted bookkeeping practices, he will report that other big-ticket items related to the Olympics must be included in the total cost, such as:
- The $600-million Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler upgrade.
- The costs of a station on the rapid rail transit line at the Olympic Village in Vancouver.
- The $110 million trust fund for the future operating costs of running Olympic facilities for the years well beyond 2010 and the costs of essential government services to make the Games happen.
Premier Gordon Campbell and his government have taken a narrower approach to Olympic costs. They have long argued that infrastructure projects and other costs that are not directly related to putting on the Games should not be added to the price tag for the 2010 Olympics.Economic Development Minister Colin Hansen will be holding a news conference today to explain the government's case, and deal with the auditor-general's independent assessment.The government is expected to argue the auditor-general is incorrect in including public services that are not directly related to the Olympics, even though the government itself had used the arrival of the Games to justify such major projects. It was expected that building the Olympics' venues would be $470 million. That number was increased to $580 million as construction costs soared. But when the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee announced earlier this year that its venues were $110 million over budget, Hansen insisted that costs would not go beyond a $139 million contingency fund. Both Ottawa and the province agreed to spend $55 million each to make up for the extra construction costs. That leaves the province with a contingency fund of $84 million. Today's report does not mean that the costs have soared beyond that new figure of $580 million. But the New Democratic Party is saying that taxpayers should beware. It says the government will be forced to recognize the total cost of holding the Olympic Games is more than three times what it has been saying. The NDP is also calling for continuing independent reports on the the Games' total costs, warning that it could rise much higher. "The government has been hiding the costs of the Olympics," said NDP leader Carole James. "They haven't been up front with the public. We need to make sure the Games are successful. But you don't make them successful by hiding the true cost of the Olympics, by pulling the wool over the eyes of the taxpayers." Today's report from the auditor-general, which will be followed by other government overviews of the Olympics' costs later in the day, essentially takes issue with the Liberal government's argument that such infrastructure projects as the Canada Line and the Sea to Sky Highway are public works that are not entirely Olympics-related.